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England are learning to play without fear. Chris Gayle wrote the book on it. England did not play badly here, but they were obliterated all the same: beaten by the West Indies with six wickets and 11 balls to spare, handed a sour reminder that good areas and positive thinking are sometimes no match for genuine greatness.

And greatness is surely not too strong a word here. Gayle won this game with an unbeaten 100 off 48 balls, doing to England exactly what he has done to so many teams, for so many teams.

The crowd had a better chance of catching the ball than England’s fielders did. He hit 11 sixes in total, barely bothering with singles at times: the defining motif of his innings the satisfied look on his face as he gazed skyward once more to admire his handiwork.

This is what Gayle does. He breaks your spirit. He makes you feel his presence. He bends the situation to his will, to the point where cricket – the game in which you have been proficient since childhood – suddenly feels impossible.

This was his 17th century in T20 cricket; Brendon McCullum, his nearest rival, has seven. His statistical dominance in the shortest form of the game has bred comparisons with Sir Donald Bradman. But if Gayle is not in Bradman’s class as a batsman, then he has surely sapped the will of more bowlers than the Don ever did.

There is an aura there, too. It feels strange to be saying so in the youngest of formats, but here England clearly sensed Gayle’s legend long before it revealed itself. It was as if they were acutely aware of the gulf between them and him: in experience, reputation, pedigree.

Gayle was in imperious form in MumbaiCredit:
AP

Maybe they believed the hype. You could say England were guilty of hitting Gayle’s favourite lengths too often. Gayle is not an indiscriminate butcher: not most of the time, anyway. He does play each ball on its merits. And although England occasionally made him think with the bouncer, a ball that failed to reach shoulder height was disappearing. An express yorker would get the respect it deserved, but a full half-volley was landing in the popcorn of some bloke in Row Y.

But when your margin for error is this narrow, it seems churlish to apportion blame. No bowler was spared. England had picked David Willey over Liam Plunkett, but Willey actually bowled fairly well until Gayle took him to the cleaners. So did Adil Rashid. So did Moeen Ali. So did Ben Stokes. Once Gayle got going, this became his game, and the other 21 players were merely his backing dancers.

England’s path to the semi-finals now looks perilous. They will almost certainly have to beat South Africa on Friday.

Their total of 182 had looked competitive. Their effort lacked a totemic, defining innings in the vein of Gayle’s, but Joe Root (48), Jos Buttler (30) and Eoin Morgan (27) all had a decent swing. And when Willey removed Johnson Charles in the first over of the West Indies’ response, England were well on top.

Joe Root's efforts were in vain as England were well beatenCredit:
REUTERS

Curiously, Gayle struggled to pick up momentum early on. He faced just six balls in the first five overs, as he and Marlon Samuels dealt almost exclusively in boundaries and dot balls. In the seventh over, Morgan introduced Rashid, who bowled Gayle a googly first up. Gayle picked it. He left it. He shot Rashid a little stare, so Rashid knew he had picked it.

In the very next over, Rashid bowled Gayle a slider. Gayle hit it into the top of the stand. Rashid took a deep breath and bowled him a conventional leg-spinner. Gayle hit him again, in exactly the same place. And despite the fact that it was only the ninth over and the West Indies still needed more than 100, this felt like the pivotal moment: the West Indies’ best batsman taking apart England’s best bowler. Game over.

England could feel the game slipping away with every painful breath. Stokes was taken for 18 in an over. Moeen, who had bowled well to that point, was deposited for three beautiful straight sixes in a row.

At the end of the over, England jogged around to their positions, but the spring was gone from their step. Gayle knocked gloves with Russell and said a few words, presumably something along the lines of what he fancied doing later that evening.

The century came off 47 balls, with three overs to go. Gayle dropped to his knees. The helmet came off. And as the crowd roared, England’s players could finally stare straight into the eyes of their destroyer. Few of them could bear to look.